The Body Farm Read online

  “This isn’t making sense,” I said. “A writer is going to back up his work, and it is evident that he was anything but careless. What about his gun safe?” I asked Marino. “Did you find any disks in there?”

  “Nope.”

  “That doesn’t mean someone didn’t get into it, and the house, for that matter,” I said.

  “If they did, they knew the combination of the safe and the code for the burglar alarm system.”

  “Are they the same?” I asked.

  “Yeah. He uses his D.O.B. for everything.”

  “And how did you find that out?”

  “His mother,” he said.

  “What about keys?” I said. “None came in with the body. He must have had some to drive his truck.”

  “Roche said there aren’t any,” Marino said, and I thought that odd, too.

  Wesley was watching pages of undeleted files come off the printer. “These all look like newspaper stories,” he said.

  “Published?” I asked.

  “Some may have been because they look pretty old. The plane that crashed into the White House, for example. And Vince Foster’s suicide.”

  “Maybe Eddings was just cleaning house,” Lucy proposed.

  “Oh, now here we go.” Marino was reviewing a bank statement. “On December tenth, three thousand dollars was wired to his account.” He opened another envelope and looked some more. “Same thing for November.”

  It was also true for October and the rest of the year, and based on other information, Eddings definitely needed to supplement his income. His mortgage payment was a thousand dollars a month, his monthly charge card bills sometimes as much, yet his annual salary was barely forty-five thousand dollars.

  “Shit. With all this extra cash coming in, he was sucking in almost eighty grand a year,” Marino said. “Not bad.”

  Wesley left the printer and walked over to where I stood. He quietly placed a page in my hand.

  “The obituary for Dwain Shapiro,” he said. “ Washington Post, October sixteenth of last year.”

  The article was brief and simply stated that Shapiro had been a mechanic at a Ford dealership in D.C., and was shot to death in a carjacking while on his way home from a bar late at night. He was survived by people who lived nowhere near Virginia, and the New Zionists were not mentioned.

  “Eddings didn’t write this,” I said. “A reporter for the Post did.”

  “Then how did he get the Book?” Marino said. “And why the hell was it under his bed?”

  “He might have been reading it,” I answered simply. “And maybe he didn’t want anyone else—a housekeeper, for example—to see it.”

  “These are notes now.” Lucy was engrossed in the screen, opening one file after another and hitting the print command. “Okay, now we’re getting to the good stuff. Damn.” She was getting excited as text scrolled by and the LaserJet hummed and clicked. “How wild.” She stopped what she was doing and turned around to Wesley. “He’s got all this stuff about North Korea mixed in with info about Joel Hand and the New Zionists.”

  “What about North Korea?” He was reading pages while Marino went through another drawer.

  “The problem our government had with theirs several years ago when they were trying to make weapons-grade plutonium at one of their nuclear power plants.”

  “Supposedly, Hand is very interested in fusion, energy, that sort of thing,” I said. “There’s an allusion to that in the Book.”

  “Okay,” said Wesley, “then maybe this is just a big profile on him. Or better stated, the raw makings of a big piece on him.”

  “Why would Eddings delete the file of a big article he had not yet finished?” I wanted to know. “And is it a coincidence that he did this the night he died?”

  “That could be consistent with someone planning to commit suicide,” Wesley said. “And we really can’t be certain he didn’t do that.”

  “Right,” Lucy said. “He wipes out all his work so that after he’s gone, no one’s going to see anything he doesn’t want them to see. Then he stages his death to look like an accident. Maybe it mattered a lot to him that people not think he killed himself.”

  “A strong possibility,” Wesley agreed. “He may have been involved in something he couldn’t get out of, thus explaining the money wired to his bank account every month. Or he could have suffered from depression or from an intense personal loss that we know nothing of.”

  “Someone else could have deleted the files and taken any backup disks or printouts,” I said. “Someone may have done this after he was already dead.”

  “Then this person had a key, knew codes and combinations,” he said. “He knew Eddings wasn’t home and wasn’t going to be.” He glanced up at me.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “That’s pretty complicated.”

  “This case is very complicated,” I said, “but I can tell you with certainty that if Eddings were poisoned underwater with cyanide gas, he could not have done this to himself. And I want to know why he had so many guns. I want to know why the one he was carrying in his johnboat has a Birdsong coating and was loaded with KTWs.”

  Wesley glanced again at me, and his unflappability was hitting me hard. “Certainly, one could view his survivalist tendencies as an indicator of instability,” he said.

  “Or fear of being murdered,” I said.

  Then we went into that room. Submachine guns were on a rack on the wall, and pistols, revolvers and ammunition were inside the Browning safe that police had opened this morning. Ted Eddings had equipped a small bedroom with an arbor press, digital scale, case trimmer, reloading dies and everything else needed to keep him in cartridges. Copper tubing and primers were stored in a drawer. Gunpowder was in an old military case, and it seemed he had been fond of laser sights and spotting scopes.

  “I think this shows a tilted mind-set.” It was Lucy who spoke as she squatted before the safe, opening hard plastic gun cases. “I’d call all of this more than a little paranoid. It’s like he thought an army was coming.”

  “Paranoia is healthy if there really is someone after you,” I said.

  “Me, I’m beginning to think the guy was wacky,” Marino replied.

  I did not care about their theories. “I smelled cyanide in the morgue,” I reminded them as my patience wore thinner. “He didn’t gas himself before going into the river, or he would have been dead when he hit the water.”

  “You smelled cyanide,” Wesley said, pointedly. “No one else did, and we don’t have tox results yet.”

  “What are you implying, that he drowned himself?” I stared at him.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I saw nothing to indicate drowning,” I said.

  “Do you always see indications in drownings?” he reasonably asked. “I thought drownings were notoriously difficult, explaining why expert witnesses from South Florida are often flown in to help with such cases.”

  “I began my career in South Florida and am considered an expert witness in drownings,” I sharply said.

  We continued arguing outside on the sidewalk by his car because I wanted him to take me home so we could finish our fight. The moon was vague, the nearest streetlight a block away, and we could not see each other well.

  “For God’s sake, Kay, I was not implying that you don’t know what you’re doing,” he was saying.

  “You most certainly were.” I was standing by the driver’s door as if the car were mine and I was about to leave in it. “You’re picking on me. You’re acting like an ass.”

  “We’re investigating a death,” he said in that steady tone of his. “This is not the time or place for anything to be taken personally.”

  “Well, let me tell you something, Benton, people aren’t machines. They do take things personally.”

  “And that’s really what this is all about.” He moved beside me and unlocked the door. “You’re reacting personally because of me. I’m not sure this was a good idea.” Locks rushed up. �
��Maybe I shouldn’t have come here today.” He slid into the driver’s seat. “But I felt it was important. I was trying to do the right thing and thought you would do the same.”

  I walked around to the other side and got in, and wondered why he had not opened my door when he usually did. Suddenly, I was very weary and afraid I might cry.

  “It is important, and you did do the right thing,” I said. “A man is dead. I not only believe he was murdered but think he might have been caught up in something bigger that I fear may be very ugly. I don’t think he deleted his own computer files and disposed of all backups because that would imply he knew he was going to die.”

  “Yes. It would imply suicide.”

  “Which this case is not.”

  We looked at each other in the dark.

  “I think someone entered his house late the night of his death.”

  “Someone he knew.”

  “Or someone who knew someone else who had access. Like a colleague or close friend, or a significant other. As for keys to get in, his are missing.”

  “You think this has to do with the New Zionists.” He was beginning to mellow.

  “I’m afraid of that. And someone is warning me to back off.”

  “That would implicate the Chesapeake police.”

  “Maybe not the entire department,” I said. “Maybe just Roche.”

  “If what you’re saying is true, he’s superficial in this, an outer layer far removed from the core. His interest in you is a separate issue, I suspect.”

  “His only interest is to intimidate, to bully,” I said. “And therefore, I suspect it is related.”

  Wesley got quiet, looking out the windshield, and for a moment I indulged myself and stared at him.

  Then he turned to me. “Kay, has Dr. Mant ever said anything about being threatened?”

  “Not to me. But I don’t know if he would say anything. Especially if he were frightened.”

  “Of what? That’s what I’m having a very hard time imagining,” he said as he started the car and pulled out onto the street. “If Eddings were linked to the New Zionists, then how could that possibly connect to Dr. Mant?”

  I did not know, and was quiet as he drove.

  He spoke again. “Any possibility your British colleague simply skipped town? Do you know for a fact that his mother died?”

  I thought of my Tidewater morgue supervisor, who had quit before Christmas without giving notice or a reason. Then Mant suddenly had left, too.

  “I know only what he told me,” I said. “But I have no reason to think he is lying.”

  “When does your other deputy chief come back, the one out on maternity leave?”

  “She just had her baby.”

  “Well, that’s a little hard to fake,” he said.

  We were turning on Malvern, and the rain was tiny pinpricks against the glass. Welling up inside me were words I could not say, and when we turned on Cary Street I began to feel desperate. I wanted to tell Wesley that we had made the right decision, but ending a relationship doesn’t end feelings. I wanted to inquire after Connie, his wife. I wanted to invite him into my home as I had done in the past, and ask him why he never called me anymore. Old Locke Lane was without light as we followed it toward the river, and he drove slowly in low gear.

  “Are you going back to Fredericksburg tonight?” I asked.

  He was silent, then said, “Connie and I are getting a divorce.”

  I made no reply.

  “It’s a long story and will probably be a rather long drawn-out messy thing. Thank God, at least, the kids are pretty much grown.” He rolled down his window and the guard waved us through.

  “Benton, I’m very sorry,” I said, and his BMW was loud on my empty, wet street.

  “Well, you probably could say I got what I deserved. She’s been seeing another man for the better part of a year, and I was clueless. Some profiler I am, right?”

  “Who is it?”

  “He’s a contractor in Fredericksburg and was doing some work on the house.”

  “Does she know about us?” I almost could not ask, for I had always liked Connie and was certain the truth would make her hate me.

  We turned into my driveway and he did not answer until we had parked near my front door.

  “I don’t know.” He took a deep breath and looked down at his hands on the wheel. “She’s probably heard rumors, but she really doesn’t listen to rumors, much less believe them.” He paused. “She knows we’ve spent a lot of time together, taken trips, that sort of thing. But I really suspect she thinks that’s solely because of work.”

  “I feel awful about all of this.”

  He said nothing.

  “Are you still at home?” I asked.

  “She wanted to move out,” he replied. “She moved into an apartment where I guess she and Doug can regularly meet.”

  “That’s the contractor’s name.”

  His face was hard as he stared out the windshield. I reached over and gently took one of his hands.

  “Look,” I said quietly. “I want to help in any way I can. But you’ll have to tell me what I can do.”

  He glanced at me, and for an instant his eyes shone with tears that I believed were for her. He still loved his wife, and though I understood, I did not want to see it.

  “I can’t let you do much for me.” He cleared his throat. “Right now especially. For pretty much the next year. This guy she’s with likes money and knows I have some, you know, from my family. I don’t want to lose everything.”

  “I don’t see how you can, in light of what she’s done.”

  “It’s complicated. I have to be careful. I want my children to still care about me, to respect me.” He looked at me and withdrew his hand. “You know how I feel. Please try to just leave it at that.”

  “Did you know about her in December, when we decided to stop—”

  He interrupted me, “Yes. I knew.”

  “I see.” My voice was tight. “I wish you could have told me. It might have made it easier.”

  “I don’t think anything could have made it easier.”

  “Good night, Benton,” I said as I got out of his car, and I did not turn around to watch him drive away.

  Inside, Lucy was playing Melissa Etheridge, and I was glad my niece was here and that there was music in the house. I forced myself to not think about him, as if I could walk into a different room in my mind and lock him out. Lucy was inside the kitchen, and I took my coat off and set my pocketbook on the counter.

  “Everything okay?” She shut the refrigerator door with a shoulder and carried eggs to the sink.

  “Actually, everything’s pretty rotten,” I said.

  “What you need is something to eat, and as luck would have it, I’m cooking.”

  “Lucy”—I leaned against the counter—“if someone is trying to disguise Eddings’ death as an accident or suicide, then I can see how subsequent threats or intrigue concerning my Norfolk office might make sense. But why would threats have been made to any member of my staff in the past? Your deductive skills are good. You tell me.”

  She was beating egg whites into a bowl and thawing a bagel in the microwave. Her nonfat routines were depressing, and I did not know how she kept them up.

  “You don’t know that anyone was threatened in the past,” she matter-of-factly said.

  “I realize I don’t know, at least not yet.” I had begun making Viennese coffee. “But I’m simply trying to reason this out. I’m looking for a motive and coming up empty-handed. Why don’t you add a little onion, parsley and ground pepper to that? A pinch of salt can’t hurt you, either.”

  “You want me to fix you one?” she asked as she whisked.

  “I’m not very hungry. Maybe I’ll eat soup later.”

  She glanced up at me. “Sorry everything’s rotten.”

  I knew she referred to Wesley, and she knew I wasn’t going to discuss him.

  “Eddings’ mother lives near here,”
I said. “I think I should talk to her.”

  “Tonight? At the last minute?” The whisk lightly clicked against the sides of the bowl.

  “She very well may want to talk tonight, at the last minute,” I said. “She’s been told her son is dead and not much more.”

  “Yeah,” Lucy muttered. “Happy New Year.”

  chapter

  7

  I DID NOT have to ask anyone for a residential listing or telephone number because the dead reporter’s mother was the only Eddings with a Windsor Farms address. According to the city directory, she lived on the lovely tree-lined street of Sulgrave, which was well known for wealthy estates and the sixteenth-century manors called Virginia House and Agecroft that in the 1920s had been shipped from England in crates. The night was still young when I called, but she sounded as if she had been asleep.

  “Mrs. Eddings?” I said, and I told her who I was.

  “I’m afraid I drifted off.” She sounded frightened. “I’m sitting in my living room watching TV. Goodness, I don’t even know what’s on now. It was My Brilliant Career on PBS. Have you seen that?”

  “Mrs. Eddings,” I said again, “I have questions about your son, Ted. I’m the medical examiner for his case. And I was hopeful we might talk. I live but a few blocks from you.”

  “Someone told me you did.” Her thick Southern voice got thicker with tears. “That you lived close by.”

  “Would now be a convenient time?” I asked after a pause.

  “Well, I would appreciate it very much. And my name is Elizabeth Glenn,” she said as she began to cry.

  I reached Marino at his home, where his television was turned up so high I did not know how he could hear anything else. He was on the other line and clearly did not want to keep whoever it was on hold.

  “Sure, see what you can find out,” he said when I told him what I was about to do. “Me, I’m up to my ass right now. Got a situation down in Mosby Court that could turn into a riot.”